First of 3 defendants in 2019 Jacksonville murder-for-hire gets life sentence
A 40-year-old man avoided a possible death penalty after he pleaded guilty in the 2019 stabbing death of Velvet Love Burns in her Jacksonville home in a sordid plot involving her husband.
But as Stephen Shelton Hand begins his life sentence, husband Jerry Allen Burns has yet to go to trial on his charges of murder and conspiracy, while his mistress awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy just months after the stabbing.
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Hand pleaded guilty on Tuesday to the murder charge, while other counts of burglary and conspiracy to commit murder were dropped, court records show.
Burns, 53, has another pretrial hearing set for Aug. 13, with no trial date set, according to court files. Amanda Lee Love, 34, pleaded guilty on July 16, 2019, but her sentencing has been postponed multiple times in the past three years, the latest date also Aug. 13.
No reason has been given as to why Love and Hands' cases have remained on hold for so many years. But part of Hands' plea deal is that he would be willing to testify in those co-defendants' cases, the State Attorney's Office said.
Murder for hire in 2019
The May 9, 2019, homicide was staged to look like a burglary, the Sheriff's Office previously said. The husband told officers he had left home about 3:30 a.m. for a job in Tallahassee, then a family friend found his wife’s body that afternoon. But the investigation revealed he was having an affair with Love.
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Burns is accused of conspiring with Love to kill his 44-year-old wife, offering $5,000 for her to drive other suspects to the scene on the dead-end road off Commonwealth Avenue, promising an additional sum after the murder was done. The amount would be contributed from the victim’s life insurance policy, the Sheriff's Office said.
In announcing Hand's arrest, the Sheriff's Office said he was seen stabbing the victim and destroying evidence. Forensic evidence found at the scene also placed Hand there.
The Sheriff's Office said he and the victim did not know each other. But Love and Hand have three children together, according to a 2018 injunction for protection she filed against him.
Hand was already in jail after an unrelated May 29, 2019, arrest when he was officially charged with the murder.
dscanlan@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4549
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Stephen Hand pleads guilty in Velvet Burns murder plot in Jacksonville
